An Address to Young Girls (Part 2)​

“A Muslimah’s Guide to Living a Blissful Life” by Sayyidah Khairun Nisaa (rahimahallah) #3

My dear daughters! I do realise that (even if you do not prepare yourself while in your parents’ home, then) the day will eventually come when you will have improved, acquired the skills that you need and learnt what you need to know. As time passes, your weaknesses will transform into skills, because you will learn from the difficulties that you underwent and the mistakes that you made. However, of what good will it be, when people who wished well for you and had aspirations in you would no longer be around? It is my aspiration that you begin, from now, acquiring all the qualities and skills that will shield you from the challenges and difficulties that you will face later on.

If you think that you ‘know it all’, and you will be able to deal with the demand of every occasion, then you are absolutely wrong and mistaken, even though you may have occasionally sewed yourself an outfit, or cut out the draft and design of a garment, or cooked a pot of food now and again, or embroidered on a kurta, topi or purse at some point, or you learnt to read the Quraan Majeed and a few kitaabs in some madrasah and then left, and let alone understanding the kitaabs – you did not even know what subject the kitaab was written on! Can this ever be regarded as capability, and can such a person be considered competent? If someone has to ask you a question, then you will be left speechless.

Read more: An Address to Young Girls (Part 2)​

An Address to Young Girls (Part 1)​

“A Muslimah’s Guide to Living a Blissful Life” by Sayyidah Khairun Nisaa (rahimahallah) #2

My dear daughters

Let me give you a picture of the life of comfort that you currently enjoy in your home as well as the life that you will be leading in future, when you will move into someone else’s home.

One day you will move out of your parents’ home and live in another person’s home. Although you conduct yourself and behave in a certain way in your parents’ home, you will be expected to conduct yourself and behave differently tomorrow when you are in someone else’s home. The conditions and situations that you face in your parents’ home are different, whereas the conditions and situations that you will encounter tomorrow will be entirely different.

Read more: An Address to Young Girls (Part 1)​

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Perfect for hot summer days

Mix together the following ingredients:

2 cups milk

2 cups fresh cream

1 cups sugar

½ tsp fine salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Mint essence to taste (around 2 tsp)

Dash of green colouring

1 heaping cup of finely chopped dark chocolate

Refrigerate the mixture overnight and churn in an ice cream machine

The Temperament of Foods

As discussed previously, temperament in Tibb consists of four qualities viz. heat, cold, moisture and dryness. These four qualities are found in foods as well, and hence foods also have their own temperament.

This means that foods will either be cooling or heating for the body, together with having an appropriate level of moisture or dryness. Accordingly, heating foods will increase the metabolism of the body, while cooling foods will slow the metabolism of the body. This has also been proven scientifically. Research by Dr Edward Howell has proven that when heating spices are consumed, the body dramatically increases the production of digestive enzymes.

Read more: The Temperament of Foods

Bring out the Best in Him

No matter how hard this material world may try, it will never ever be perfect. Even if you fly first-class, you may have a person snoring nearby, spoiling your serenity. Even if you install the best bathroom fittings, they cannot give you water when the municipality decides to cut-off the mains. Even if the best of food is prepared, you don’t always have the appetite for it, and so on.

The point is that nothing in this material world will be perfect. Rather, you win some and you lose some. Everything will have its pros and cons. The trick is to avoid the cons while enjoying the pros. For example, if a person is stuck with a chipped mug, then instead of cutting his lip over and over on the chipped portion, he will turn the mug the other way and drink from the intact portion. Similarly, if he has a couch that is sagging on one side, then instead of collapsing into the sagging section, he will avoid it and sit on the other side.

The same applies in marriage. No spouse is going to be perfect. If he’s wealthy then maybe he’s ill-mannered, and if he possesses good character then perhaps he’s lazy. Hence, we should never walk into a marriage expecting to find our ‘Mr. Perfect’, as he will only turn up in Jannah.

Read more: Bring out the Best in Him